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To: RS

"Since you do have access to the complete and unedited Koran, perhaps you can go through your list and leave out the edited ones ?"

No. It's up to you. You continue to maintain that all translations from arabic are suspect. That arabic is (for some reason I cannot fathom) UNTRANSLATABLE.

Difficult yes, but not IMPOSSIBLE. The difficulties are touched upon in this article. The difficulties are a matter of VOCABULARY.

(SNIPPED)

AMIR TAHERI'S REMARKS AT DEBATE "ISLAM IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH DEMOCRACY"
by Amir Taheri
Benador Online
May 19, 2004

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am glad that this debate takes place in English.

Because, were it to be conducted in any of the languages of our part of the world, we would not have possessed the vocabulary needed.

To understand a civilisation it is important to understand its vocabulary.

If it was not on their tongues it is likely that it was not on their minds either.

There was no word in any of the Muslim languages for democracy until the 1890s. Even then the Greek word democracy entered Muslim languages with little change: democrasi in Persian, dimokraytiyah in Arabic, demokratio in Turkish.

Democracy as the proverbial schoolboy would know is based on one fundamental principle: equality.

The Greek word for equal isos is used in more than 200 compound nouns; including isoteos (equality) and Isologia (equal or free speech) and isonomia (equal treatment).

But again we find no equivalent in any of the Muslim languages. The words we have such as barabari in Persian and sawiyah in Arabic mean juxtaposition or levelling.

Nor do we have a word for politics.

The word siassah, now used as a synonym for politics, initially meant whipping stray camels into line.( Sa'es al-kheil is a person who brings back lost camels to the caravan. )The closest translation may be: regimentation.

Nor is there mention of such words as government and the state in the Koran.

It is no accident that early Muslims translated numerous ancient Greek texts but never those related to political matters. The great Avicenna himself translated Aristotle's Poetics. But there was no translation of Aristotle's Politics in Persian until 1963.

http://www.benadorassociates.com/pf.php?id=4462


You wrote: "The second "quote" is the SAME selectivly ediited one you posted before."

How THICK are you?

Translate WAR AND PEACE from its original language into English, French, Spanish, Greek etc...it's still the same novel although the WORDS ARE NOT IN EXACTLY THE SAME ORDER.

Methinks your problem is you are angry the koran WAS TRANSLATED AT ALL! (Haha! Removed its 'mystery', did it?)

Now, I'm happy to wait for your 'proper' translation. Have at it.


51 posted on 06/18/2006 8:14:10 PM PDT by Fred Nerks (Read the bio THE LIFE OF MUHAMMAD free! Click Fred Nerks for link to my Page.)
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To: Fred Nerks

"No. It's up to you. You continue to maintain that all translations from arabic are suspect. "

Sorry, it's not a matter of translation - unless of course you expect me to believe that the writer of theprophetofdoom website did his own translation ...

It's your source that is faulty ...


54 posted on 06/18/2006 8:40:01 PM PDT by RS ("I took the drugs because I liked them and I found excuses to take them, so I'm not weaseling.")
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